


what happened to the hollow knight?

by Schnikeys_Discuss (Schnikeys)



Series: Clockie's Meta [13]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Analysis, Archived from radioactivesupersonic Blog, Character Analysis, Gen, Nonfiction, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:55:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27056044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schnikeys/pseuds/Schnikeys_Discuss
Summary: "I had an upsetting realization on my most recent Hollow Knight playthrough:It’s actually pretty likely, given the dialogue and framing of your first arrival in the City of Tears and the fountain cutscene in particular, that Ghost actually had no idea what had befallen Pure after the latter left the abyss and they fell back down."
Series: Clockie's Meta [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1974223
Kudos: 9





	what happened to the hollow knight?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ClockworkRainbow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClockworkRainbow/gifts).



I had an upsetting realization on my most recent Hollow Knight playthrough:

It’s actually pretty likely, given the dialogue and framing of your first arrival in the City of Tears and the fountain cutscene in particular, that Ghost actually had no idea what had befallen Pure after the latter left the abyss and they fell back down.

Before this point, I’d always assumed that Ghost knew Pure had been sacrificed to seal Radiance and came back to the kingdom because they knew Pure was close to dying. However, the likelier implication is that while Ghost is able to ‘hear’ Pure, faintly, they weren’t actually aware of why Pure was screaming and what had happened to them.

It’d explain why the initial cutscene of Pure crying out is so shrouded, and it would also explain why one of the earliest things you encounter, the only way out of the Forgotten Crossroads, is the signpost for the Pilgrim’s Way, that tells you to head to the city where “all wishes will be granted, _all truths revealed_.”

Ghost came to Hallownest with a question, and a wish- to see their sibling again, and to know what had happened to them. That this sign is what leads them deeper into the city tells us that’s what they’re looking for- that they continually work to remove obstructions and fight their way deeper.

It’s around the point that you get to the City of Tears that the relatively linear path falls away and leaves you with a much more open world. Yes, technically, you can break off much earlier than that, but, the dialogue options clearly have a certain expectation- you get to the bottom of the Fungal Wastes, but climb back up and go to the city before facing the Mantis Lords- if you went there in the first place instead of immediately deviating from your exploration to chase Hornet into the city.

The cutscene that shows us the fountain in full is incredibly mournful and bleak- the fountain itself is revealed very slowly, pieces of it focused on, but it only _ends_ on the statue of Pure, on which the rain falls in such a way as to create a specific tear in one of its eyes. It’s immediately after that Hornet rappels down to talk to Ghost, where her dialogue heavily implies Ghost is in the process of finding out new information they were not privy to before:

> _It’s no surprise then you’ve managed to reach the heart of this world. In so doing, you shall know the sacrifice that keeps it standing._
> 
> _If, knowing that truth, you’d still attempt a role in Hallownest’s perpetuation, seek the Grave in Ash and the mark it would grant to one like you._

This is a meaningless thing to say if Ghost already knew Pure’s fate and was just finding it out. There’s also that examining the fountain imposes Pure’s silhouette onto the map of the Black Egg temple- Ghost will update their map with any information they’re aware of, but they didn’t mark down Pure’s location- they may have lingered outside the egg due to curiosity, but not realized Pure was there.

(Then again, Ghost also doesn’t mark down the Abyss before you get there, even though they know its interior, but, it could also have been a long time ago; it’s entirely possible given the Vessels are cast into molds, in a way, that they physically can’t grow up unless they’re bequeathed a bigger body- hence why Pure and Ghost are the same age but Pure is the only one mature while Ghost hasn’t changed at all- it could well have been years to decades since Ghost left the abyss, which would explain how decrepit their nail is, and it’d also reflect that their memory is not perfect- so having not returned to the Abyss in a long time, they’d have forgotten its layout. This would furthermore explain how we don’t know how Ghost got to the surface, since we can’t find any way out besides the door- that could have closed a long time ago)

The real kicker is, again, the game has certain expectations about where you go next even if you aren’t obligated to follow them. After the City of Tears, two NPCs who you follow throughout the kingdom, Zote and Cloth, both relocate themselves to Deepnest, and the way Quirrel’s comments outside the Mantis Village frame things, you go to the City to get a nail upgrade so you can come back and face the Lords- which opens the path to Deepnest.

So right after Ghost hears- seemingly _for the first time_ \- that Pure was sacrificed to seal the Radiance, in much clearer words than the Pale King’s speech to Pure at the mouth of the Abyss, and what that means…

You go into Deepnest. And what happens the first time you’re in Deepnest? _Nosk_.

Nosk, the siren that preys on _grieving people_. Dream nailing the corpses along Nosk’s lair tell us that most of these people are chasing after their lost beloveds who they thought they would never see again.

The last time Ghost saw Pure, they were desperately struggling their way to the top of the Abyss, only in time to see Pure leave without them. It’s very likely that Ghost spent a long time after that stuck on the idea that if they’d been faster, they would have caught up to Pure- that they wouldn’t have been separated.

Ghost’s apotheosis in every ending besides Hollow Knight and Sealed Siblings comes by gathering all of the Vessels’ spirits to them, and even those first two endings focus heavily on sibling bonds. The fate of the other Vessels means a huge amount to Ghost- they are motivated highly by their family, at least, those they acknowledge as their family. (Kind of raises some questions about their feelings towards Zote)

It would suggest timeline-wise, Ghost finds Nosk exactly at the point when Ghost is the most vulnerable to Nosk’s suggestion- either they’re still reeling from hearing Pure might be dead, or actively in denial. Either way, catching a faint, distant glimpse of something that looks like Pure, it makes sense the normally perceptive Ghost would drop everything to run after them. They’d feel like they can’t allow themselves to make the same mistake they did the first time, where they were separated from Pure because they fell behind.

And then it’s a dead end, the sight of several dead Vessels, and Nosk revealing itself in full.

Ghost can only have been a combination of miserable and absolutely furious. It’d even give new context to the fact that the Hunter’s notes on Nosk almost feel like consolation they’d give to Ghost after that upsetting encounter:

> _In the deepest darkness, there are beasts who wear faces stolen from your memories and pluck at the strings in your heart. Know yourself, and stay strong._

“Stolen from your memories” and “pluck at the strings in your heart” are rather poignant phrases. And it’s unlikely Hunter is speaking personally; his various notes about family and siblings suggest those connections are very distant to him, things he muses about from time to time but isn’t actively haunted by very much. Also because Nosk likely wouldn’t threaten him that much, since he’s of a size he could simply snap Nosk in half in his jaws.

This would also lend some terrifying context to the winged Nosk variant that emulates Hornet instead- suggesting that Ghost is at least partially terrified of the idea of chasing and losing Hornet the same way they lost Pure. Actually, that just makes me wonder if Ghost took to Hornet in part because she reminded them of Pure; they have a similar headshape and what we can discern of Pure’s personality suggests they are a very dutiful, talented, and precise individual, and one of impressive psychological fortitude considering how long they held against Radiance, even clearly having doubts about their objective and training from the start.

**Author's Note:**

> Analysis originally found here: <https://radioactivesupersonic.tumblr.com/post/183346817640/i-had-an-upsetting-realization-on-my-most-recent>


End file.
